39. Pete becomes Employee of the Month at Fall Out Bros. Pizza.

I soon realized that I had nothing to worry about. The vision wouldn't happen, because I had no chance of being the Employee of the Month. Billie wouldn't give me that award when I was about to leave. Besides, there were plenty of other people who deserved it more than I did.

If I could have, I would have just not worked in the week and a half I had left before I supposed to leave for DePaul, but when Billie called me three days after I got back from New Jersey, I knew that I had to go to work. "You've already skipped two weeks of work," Billie told me when I arrived at the restaurant. "You don't have any more vacation days left."

Surely, skipping two weeks of work would keep me from becoming Employee of the Month.

I delivered the pizzas that Billie needed me to, never doing more than what I was asked. After work that day, I drove to Brendon's house to visit him. As soon as he saw the DeLorean in the driveway, Ryan let me in. Penny Lane wouldn't stop licking my leg as he led me down the hallway into the living room, where Brendon was lying on the couch, his broken foot propped up on a pillow. "Hey Pete," Brendon said.

"Hi Brendon," I said. "I just came to check on you."

"You didn't need to do that," Brendon said. "Ryan and Penny are taking care of me."

Ryan leaned in to kiss Brendon, and I said, "Aren't you two worried about Brendon's parents finding out?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Urie aren't home right now," Ryan said.

"Pete's right though," Brendon said. "Mom and Dad could come home at any minute."

"Pete, how was New Jersey?" Ryan asked.

"It was okay until somebody robbed Mikey and Gerard's house," I said.

"Mike Pedicone did it!" Brendon exclaimed.

"Who's Mike Pedicone?" Ryan asked.

"He used to sell merch for I Don't Know How But They Found Me," Brendon said. "Anyways, New Jersey was fun, but I missed you a lot, Ryan."

"I missed you too," Ryan said. "It was so lonely here without you."

"At least you had Penny Lane," Brendon said.

"She missed you too," Ryan said, just as the puppy hopped up onto the couch to lick Brendon's face, making him laugh.

Eventually, I went home, but I came back a few times over the course of the week to see how Brendon was doing, Sometimes, I brought Gabe along with me. However, I still spent my days at Fall Out Bros. Pizza, and the night after I went to visit Brendon for the first time, I went to Tea Monkey to see Patrick.

Patrick and Elisa were behind the counter, and Patrick looked as perfect as he always did. He was wearing a fedora on top of a Tea Monkey hat, and the smile on his face as he handed a cup of tea to a customer was just adorable. I used to say I wanted to die before I was old, but the way his baby blue eyes lit up when he saw me walk in made me think twice.

"Pete!" he exclaimed. "How can I help you?"

"I'm not here to order tea, Trick," I said.

Patrick shrugged and said, "That's okay. How was New Jersey?"

I told him everything that had happened, leaving out everything about the visions because I knew that he wouldn't want to hear about it. Meanwhile, Patrick tried to help as many customers as he could while still listening to my story.

"Holy smokes, Pete," Patrick said after I was done telling him about New Jersey.

"I missed you a lot while I was away," I said. "That's why I called you in the middle of the trip."

"I missed you too, and you could have called sooner," Patrick said.

"I wanted to spend time with Mikey," I said. "I hadn't seen him in seven years." I left out that I might never see him again if the apocalypse really did come.

"That makes sense," Patrick said.

"You know, maybe we should get out of here," I said. "There are too many people around."

"I have to keep working until the store closes," Patrick said.

"You can take a break if you want, Patrick," Elisa said. "I'll cover for you."

"Okay," Patrick said to Elisa. "I'll be back soon."

Patrick followed me outside, and we found the Fall Out Bros. car sitting in front of the restaurant. Nobody was in the car, and nobody would use it for the rest of the night since Fall Out Bros. Pizza had already closed for the night. The two of us climbed into the backseat, and we kissed passionately.

Surely, if Billie knew what we were doing, he wouldn't make me Employee of the Month.

Some nights, I didn't go to see Brendon or Patrick. I was leaving for college soon, so my parents were making me start packing. I had to clean out my closet, deciding which jet black jeans were worth bringing to DePaul with me, and which ones could stay at home. It was a mind-numbing process, and before long, I started wishing that I wasn't going to college at all.

The Friday after I got back from New Jersey, Billie Joe was dressed far more nicely than he usually was when I got to work. He adjusted his red tie when he saw me, and then he said, "Pete, you're working in the kitchen today."

"But I usually do deliveries," I said.

"I know," Billie said. "Joe's handling deliveries on his own today. You're in the kitchen."

"Billie, this doesn't make any sense," I said. Normally, I wouldn't have argued with Billie Joe, but I was leaving for college in less than a week. I had nothing left to lose.

Billie stepped closer to me and whispered, "Y'know, there's an inspection today. The owner of the restaurant is coming to evaluate us, and she'll fire me if she sees anything wrong here. Since we're understaffed today, I'm supposed to have only one person deliver pizzas to ensure that the pizzas themselves are still getting made quickly. I don't normally do that even when we are understaffed, but I'm doing it today because my boss is here. I can't lose my job, Pete."

I grudgingly went into the kitchen, and one of the other employees told me to help out with sprinkling cheese onto the pizzas. I did as I was asked, and after I had spent what seemed like forever doing this mind-numbing work, a stern-looking woman walked into Fall Out Bros. Pizza. Billie rushed to greet her, and he nervously showed her around the restaurant. The Clash were still playing, but the volume was lower than I had ever heard it before. As Billie and his boss, who I soon learned was named Winona, talked about the state of the restaurant, I came up with an idea.

One of my coworkers handed me a deep-dish pizza, and I carefully arranged the cheese so that it was in the shape of a radio that was on fire. It took me a little while, but I was satisfied with my handiwork when I was done, so I stuffed it into the oven. I did the same thing to the next pizza, but I created a hand holding onto a heart-shaped hand grenade instead. I had time to sprinkle cheese on one more pizza, so I wrote, "Billie Joe Armstrong is an American idiot" on it in cheese.

All of a sudden, Winona and Billie walked into the kitchen. "Billie Joe, you're doing an excellent job running this restaurant," Winona said. "There's just one thing that I think you can improve on."

"What is it?" Billie asked.

"The work environment here is a little bit uptight," Winona said. "I want Fall Out Bros. Pizza to be a place where the employees can have fun, while still being professional."

"Of course, Winona," Billie said.

Since Billie's boss was there, I sprinkled cheese on the pizza in a random pattern, like I was supposed to. I didn't want to screw up Billie's inspection, even if he wouldn't be thrilled with what I had already done. Hopefully, those pizzas would be delivered to customers with a sense of humor, and Billie Joe would never find out.

I wasn't that lucky. Winona and Billie sat down at a table in the restaurant, and they both ordered pizza as they continued to talk about Fall Out Bros. A little while later, one of my coworkers brought the pizza out and put it on the table. I poked my head out of the kitchen to make sure that Billie's evaluation was going well, and I suddenly saw that the pizza was the one that I had written "Billie Joe Armstrong is an American idiot" on. To my surprise, the words were still legible, although the I and the D in "idiot" had blended together in the baking process. I ducked back into the kitchen, hoping to avoid the fallout from this expensive mistake.

Surely, Billie wouldn't make me Employee of the Month now.

Winona burst out laughing when she saw the pizza, and eventually, so did Billie. "It's great that your chefs have such a sense of humor, Billie!" she exclaimed as she cut herself a slice of the pizza.

Billie seemed much more relaxed throughout the rest of the evaluation, smiling and laughing as he ate his pizza. Meanwhile, I went back to doing my job: sprinkling cheese on top of pizzas. I didn't think about what I had done again until a few days later, when I came to Fall Out Bros. Pizza for lunch with Gabe two days later.

On my way into Fall Out Bros., I saw Billie kick over a trash can as he walked into the restaurant. Both Gabe and I laughed when we saw that. "Did you just do that because you're punk rock?" I asked.

"Yes," Billie said, and he didn't say another word to me as he headed into Fall Out Bros..

Gabe and I entered the restaurant and found a table near the back of the room. One of my coworkers took our order, giving Gabe a slightly judgmental look when he asked for a vegan pizza, and then left us alone together to chat.

"I can't believe that you're leaving for college in three days," Gabe said.

"Me neither," I said. "I'm going to miss Shermer." I thought of all of my usual haunts that would soon be nothing more than a place in my house of memories, from the smoothie shop to the theater to Tea Monkey to Fall Out Bros. itself.

"Pete, you're only moving to the city," Gabe said. "I'm going to be four states away."

"I'll write you so many letters that you'll feel like you're still in Shermer," I said.

Of course, this was all assuming that the world didn't end within the next three days, but I didn't bring that up. Besides, we had lasted this long. For a moment, I thought that we both might actually be able to make it to college without Gabe dying.

That was when I saw the poster. "What are you looking at, Pete?" Gabe asked, but he soon noticed it too.

There was a poster hanging on the wall, and there was a picture of me, dressed in black, next to the Fall Out Bros. car on it. I wasn't sure when Billie had taken it, but it couldn't have been too long ago. Underneath the picture, there was a caption.

Fall Out Bros. Pizza would like to recognize its Employee of the Month, Pete Wentz. Pete has been serving Fall Out Bros. since January 1984, and he excels at delivering pizza to our loyal customers. Pete also makes his colleagues laugh every day, bringing a sense of humor to his job even at the most serious moments. He attended Shermer High School, and he will be starting as a freshman at DePaul University this fall. Pete's favorite Fall Out Bros. Pizza is our deep dish cheese pizza. Congratulations Pete, and thank you for your hard work!

"BILLIE JOE!" I shouted, hoping there was some way to undo this.

"You're welcome!" Billie Joe exclaimed from the kitchen. "You deserved it after that 'Billie Joe Armstrong is an American idiot' pizza saved my job evaluation."

"What is he talking about?" Gabe asked.

"I'll explain later," I said. "I really was trying to keep this from happening."

Gabe paused to consider all of this. "I'm going to die now," he said as he stared into the distance.

"I'm sorry," I said, already having troubled thoughts and the self-esteem to match. "I don't know how I'll go on without you."

"I'll be dead and gone, believe me, but you'll carry on," Gabe said. "I know you will, Pete."

"What if I die too?" I said. "The whole world is ending, isn't it?" I was still convinced that dying alongside Gabe was the best option. I couldn't live without everyone that I loved.

"I'll be honest, I don't know what's going to happen now," Gabe said. "I just know that the cobra said that the world would end somehow, and that I would die in an explosion while my song played in the background when that happened."

It was a lot to take in. Time had finally ran out for us, and now, there was nothing to do but wait for the apocalypse. Soon, Gabe would be dead, and the rest of us might be too. The whole situation made me want to cry, but there was no time for that. I could cry when Gabe was gone, if I didn't die first.

"Gabe, if today is your last day on Earth, what do you think we should do?" I asked.

"I just want to sit here and eat pizza at Fall Out Bros. with you," Gabe answered.

So that's what we did, and although the clock was ticking, neither of us would have spent those hours any other way. 

A/N: We're almost at the end of Mixtape For The End of the World! Thanks so much for reading this far :)

I don't know if anyone here has read Beartown, but I'm writing a short fanfiction about it called In Ten Years' Time. Check it out if you're interested! 

I'm also planning another project, but I probably won't get it published until after I'm done with Mixtape. Please follow me for updates on future fanfics and original stories! I promise I won't abuse the announcement feature - I send out announcements a few times per year, and it's usually for something important. 

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy the ending of Mixtape For The End of the World.